Free School Meals: Voucher Schemes

(asked on 12th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 11 May 2020 to Question 43043 on Free School Meals: Voucher Schemes, what proportion of eCodes are delivered within four days of ordering.


Answered by
Vicky Ford Portrait
Vicky Ford
This question was answered on 27th May 2020

As both my right hon. Friends, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

Our latest guidance on for schools is set out below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals, by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the Department for Education.

For the national voucher scheme, our supplier, Edenred, has indicated that orders are processed within 4 days. The latest information provided by Edenred indicates that all orders received by 14 May were processed by 18 May. It is important to note that schools can place orders for voucher codes to be scheduled for future delivery dates. For example, a school could submit an order on 4 May, requesting the voucher code be delivered to a parent on the 18 May.

As of Friday 22 May, Edenred reported that over £101.5 million of voucher codes has been converted into supermarket eGift cards by schools and families. In the week commencing 11 May, Edenred issued communications to schools to address a number of incomplete orders, which require further action from the schools, and highlighting an issue in which schools have used incorrect or invalid parent email addresses. We are continuing to work very closely with Edenred to improve the performance of the national voucher scheme. In the last fortnight, waiting times that parent and schools previously experienced when accessing the website have been reduced very significantly and Edenred continue to work tirelessly to improve the service.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.

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